9:31am Thursday 11th March 2010
FOUR second half tries from Ollie Fleming eased Thornbury to a comfortable win at lowly Southmead. After the Thornbury pack had absorbed all Southmead could throw at them their high-tempo game ran the home side ragged.
Southmead started well and caused Thornbury trouble in the scrums. They scored an early try but within minutes Thornbury hit back with a try of their own. Wayne Underwood took a penalty to himself and Liam Pemberton put Alex Kane in for the try close to the corner flag. Tim Stephens converted majestically, but two Southmead penalties saw Thorns trail 11-7.
However, Thornbury had now taken most of the steam out of Southmead. The home team were unable to cope with the pace of Thornbury and as the intensity increased a Thornbury try seemed inevitable. In first half injury time Thorns stretched the home defence and George Maggs squeezed in for their second try. The conversion missed but Thornbury were ahead 12-11 at the interval.
The second half was all Thornbury. Within seconds of the restart Stephens split the defence with a fine break before feeding Fleming, who fended off the covering wing to score by the posts. Stephens converted. Three minutes later the ball was moved out to Dan Hussey who raced down the touchline, and passed inside to Fleming for another try. Then Thorns disrupted a Southmead scrum and the ball was moved quickly into midfield where Fleming hit the line at pace and crashed over for his hat-trick try. All three were scored in an eight-minute blitz. Stephens converted and Thorns were out of sight.
Dan Hussey finished off a Sam Olde break to score in the corner for Thorns’ sixth try. Stephens once more converted from the touchline to stretch the lead to 38-11 but Thornbury lost concentration and Southmead hit back with a converted try shortly afterwards.
As the match drew to a close Thorns continued to run the ball at every opportunity and Fleming ran in for his fourth try. As the game went into injury time Jak Evans took a quick penalty and slipped the ball to Seb Bonizzi, who drove over for Thornbury’s eighth try. Tim Stephens converted both to seal a convincing win.
Thornbury remain second in the table, eight points ahead of third place Old Centralians with six games left to play.
They play Keynsham at home on Saturday, 2.30pm.
Thornbury Scorers: Tries - Ollie Fleming (4), Alex Kane, George Maggs, Dan Hussey, Seb Bonizzi; Conversions - Tim Stephens (6).
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